A file photo of a 2M Express Van
Few days ago, whiles traveling on the Kumasi Accra highway, I noticed several white mini vans move by with the speed of light. Because of where I sat, I had to crane my neck and with a lot of effort, I noticed these buses had the inscription "2M Express Ltd". I became more curious so I launched into an investigative mode and discovered very interesting facts.
I found out, buses belonged to a company called 2M Express which operates on the Kumasi, Accra and Takoradi highway. It had recently deployed 100 brand new Toyota HiAce, 14 seater mini vans to provide transportation services. This new buses sell at about $44,760 to $72,760 from my research.
Interestingly, the mission statement of the company talks of providing comfortable and safe transportation to travellers and helping to reduce road accident. But this is a paradox considering how some of these cars are driven on our roads. They keep over speeding, tailgating and cutting off other drivers. For a company that claims it puts a lot into the training of it's drivers, I was taken aback by what I saw.
It reminded me of the days where ford vans were the trendiest vehicles for public transport on the Kumasi Accra Takoradi highways. Many lives were lost during that period as well due to the over speeding and the bad driving of some of the drivers. I think this new company is no different and I find the service they are rendering by very alarming and risky.
On Sunday March 25, at about 4:30 am, two 2M Express mini vans with registration numbers GN 3229-21 and GN 8292-20 collided head on at Birimso near the Bunso stretch of the Kumasi Accra highway and 9 lives were lost instantly. Nineteen (19) have been seriously injured and taken to the hospital. This is to be expected considering how badly these Toyota HiAce mini vans are driven. They try to use as little as 3 hours to move from Accra to Kumasi and vice versa.
2022 saw a 7.6 percent decline in road crashes in comparison to 16,182 crashes had occurred in 2021.However with his trend left unchecked, we may see an astronomical rise in the death tolls. The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Ministry of Transport, Motor Traffic And Transport Department (MTTD), The Ghana Private Road Transport Union(GPRTU) and the Ghana Police owe Ghanaians the duty of bringing to book all who may be culpable in this killing spree by inconsiderate drivers on our roads.
Long live mother Ghana.